Mor Loushy’s film is about a long-withheld piece of oral history: a series of tape-recorded interviews conducted by the writer and novelist Amos Oz with returning Israeli soldiers after his country’s stunning victory in the six-day war of 1967, which gave Israel triumph and territorial gains over three encircling enemies: Syria, Egypt and Jordan. But the soldiers Oz talks to are notably lacking in euphoria, and are instead profoundly depressed about what the great victory cost. Oz did not get permission to publish the majority of his transcripts. His interviewees had been first-hand witnesses to the fact that military gains of that magnitude are never achieved without huge enemy fatalities, combatants and non-combatants, and the speed of this victory intensified the carnage and chaos. These soldiers had seen the brutal way conquered civilians were treated by their comrades, and they thought that this was the historical moment at which Israel lost its underdog status. As one puts it, David turned into Goliath. It’s a very sombre work.
